Dance Of The Desperado
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A/NOTE: *Ahem..I know a lot of ya'll are sick of these A-Note's but this has happened twice now and I just wanna say...IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE DAMN STORY! I DON'T WANNA HEAR YOUR GODDAMN FLAMES! I'M NOT WILDANDFREE AND I'M NOT MARX MANIAC ODELL SO GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEAD RIGHT NOW THAT I'M SOMEBODY ELSE AND I HAVE MY OWN STYLE OF THINGS! THANK YOU, AND IF YOUR GONNA FLAME ME AT LET HAVE THE GUTS TO WRITE ME AN E-MAIL ME OR SOMETHING, NOT THAT ANONYMOUS SHIT SO I CAN"T FIGURE OUT WHO YOU ARE! *cough* Now onto Chapter One for those who have something positive to say about my work. I love you ^_^.

.:.:.:Chapter One.:.:

Rebecca's Search

Rebecca yawned, she'd just finished her drive out of Wyoming, there was no turning back now. Raccoon City and her experiences there where behind her now. Things seemed so empty around her as her car seemed to drive itself down the highways to what seemed like no where. Rebecca looked to her radio, the neon orange digital numbers read 6:30 PM, it'd be best to take a break before heading into Utah, she turned onto the nearest exit and headed towards one of the local hotels.

******

Rebecca threw her luggage onto her bed, and then plopped down onto to the welcoming mattress. With a sigh she held Billy's dogtags to her face and stared aimlessly at them as they hypnotically swung to and fro making a small jingle noise. This whole situation had her more than nervous, after college and the extensive studying she endured during the phase she was expecting her career in medicine and law to skyrocket, had she'd known she'd be fighting for her life against diabolical creations of the Umbrella Corp., she honestly wouldn't have bothered with it, but what's past has past there's no changing it now...that's what she kept telling herself anyway.

Chris and the others would be in Europe probably by the end of the month, to put a stop to Umbrella. Rebecca honestly thought it couldn't be done, just the four of them against Umbrella? If they were going to do this they were going to need as much help as possible, this is where Billy came in, not only did she want to unravel the past of the enigma himself but she was determined to get Billy to join her and the others in the fight against Umbrella, hopefully she would be able to find him in time.

"For some reason this seems impossible, but I don't wanna get discouraged...this is only the beginning." Rebecca told herself.

Rebecca ransacked through her luggage, until she came across the picture that had Billy's mugshot on it, it was risky but this really was her only lead.

"Hmm...maybe I should cut the background out, so people won't ask questions." Rebecca giggled a little, at the expression on Billy's face in the picture. It must've been frustrating, telling people you didn't kill 23 people and then no one believes you...

"He was sent to prison...institutionalized...for no reason...it must've been horrible." Rebecca sympathized with him, and she felt guilty that she had thought so badly of him at the beginning. He saved her life, more than once and she just went on her way, trying not to get emotional. Of course she was gonna miss the guy, they both endured one of the most terrifying experiences together.

"I should've gone with him...but...I didn't know the mansion was infected too." "I didn't know that whole thing was a setup...damn, I'm just so naive sometimes...I should've known better." Rebecca scolded herself, for her mistakes.

"But....that's why I'm doing this...to make up for those mistakes...to take responsibility." Rebecca assured herself, but deep down there was a more hidden reason as to why she was going out of her way to do this, but she wasn't even sure what is was yet.

After seeing Billy off, after the mansion and the aftermath she felt something leading her away from the others. Chris and the others had an undying revenge and hatred for the Umbrella Corp., she did too of course but for some reason her hatred had not run as deeply as everyone else's did.

Rebecca felt an urge to finish what happened between she and Billy after the training facility, but was there really anything to finish? Was her mind convincing her of some unseen reason to find Billy? Maybe Billy had felt it was over when they went their separate ways, maybe he felt she was capable of taking care of herself, at the time it may have seemed that way but deep down she didn't want to let Billy see how scared and helpless she felt.

During their whole ordeal, an infatuation had grown, when Billy was around she felt confident and safe knowing he was there...the aura around him was comforting...like everything was okay no matter how horrific things were around them.

"Someone who killed 23 people...couldn't give that sense of security to anyone." Maybe fear and nervousness...but I never really was scared of Billy...or nervous at all." Rebecca reassured herself. Of course she had to reassure herself, deep down Rebecca knew when she and Billy had first met he kindled a fear and nervousness inside her, he could've shot and killed her...but he didn't.

When he lowered his gun, she'd been at ease and wanted to release her tension through a heavy sigh, but once again her insecurities and pride played a part in the situation. She didn't want to be deemed a weakling by this man, she wanted to be defiant, independent and strong and she hoped this facade would throw Billy off, it didn't, which made her feel hopeless. She didn't want to act defiant, independent and strong she wanted to be all of those things...Not some facade.

Ever since she could remember she'd always been the smallest and or weakest at everything, that's why her nose was always in the books, never wanting to participate in the heavy endurance activities in school. She only really did basketball on the S.T.A.R.S team here and there to give her self something physical to do, so she wouldn't be seen as the rookie medic, that's why she'd always admired Jill Valentine it seemed like she was everything the men wanted...beauty, brains, brawn she had it all and Rebecca was indeed jealous. She worked hard to impress Chris Redfield fellow S.T.A.R.S team member, but in his eyes she was a kid, a girl...the weakling medic, whilst Jill was the adult, a woman...MS. Independent.

It always seemed like Rebecca was trying to impress someone...and then it would always blow up in her face, when she ended up needing their help desperately in the end. She could count several cases with Billy, she'd tried hard to impress him as well a various amount of times, but he still had little to no confidence in her.

He told her not to screw up when the train was about to derail, was his confidence in her so low that he needed to remind her not to screw up?

It hurt, however she did realize that these were her choices and there was nothing much she could do about it now except try and fix it and find Billy.

So was that it? Is this why she wanted to go on her own and find Billy? She wanted to prove something to herself?

"I want to prove that I'm strong enough to go on my own and find Billy no matter how dangerous the situation gets...to prove it...too myself?" Rebecca shifted and tried to relax her mind, all of this thinking was hurting her head.

* I'm still so confused...if not to myself...then who? .......Chris and the others? Or have I been denying it this whole time? Was it more than just an infatuation? Was it more? *

Rebecca thought long and hard, and even though she was doing so, the answers she was getting weren't logically correct...

*It wasn't even a day...no can't be...*

*I hate thinking so much...maybe I don't need to know...there's no reason to be stressing over this so much. Tomorrow...I start my search...find Billy and stop the Umbrella Corp. once and for all...with my friends behind me...*

If only it were that easy...

***

August 8th 1998

Salt Lake City, Utah

Afternoon...

Rebecca had been on the road for hours, and was beginning to tire out again. She'd tried questioning locals when she'd left the hotel, but no one knew Billy's face at all. Your typical on-the-run fugitives are known through bars out in the middle of nowhere. She'd been doing that but no leads came out of it.

But now was not the time, to get discouraged, she just needed to head further west, then maybe she could find some leads. Nevada would be her next stop, hopefully leads and clues would begin to surface there.

"Hmm, I know this isn't the time but I've always wanted to see Vegas, maybe I can find the time during my visit there." Rebecca smiled to herself.

***

August 9th 1998

Reno, Nevada

1:30 AM

Rebecca tried desperately to keep her eyes open, she'd driven straight through Utah without stopping, ok maybe with your occasional bathroom break and refueling but she was tired and all the hotels she'd seen so far had no vacancies.

"I've gotta stay awake..." Rebecca repeated to herself over and over again, She pushed herself on and began to regret it, the lights that surrounded her minutes ago began to fade she was heading into the empty nothing but road part of Reno. She needed to find someplace to stop quick before she nodded off and crashed somewhere, suddenly the a dimly lit sign saying "Bar" in pale pink neon letters caught her attention.

It wasn't something she took too kindly to, but maybe a swig of alcohol would give her enough energy to make to the next city.

Rebecca found an empty spot of dirty road to park into, the dust rose from the ground causing a bit of an errie fog around her, which reminded her of the experiences she endured back in Raccoon. Rebecca opened the door slowly to the bar, only to be greeted with the eyes of rough looking men and trampy looking women.

*Great* Rebecca thought to herself.

She calmly walked to the front of the bar, avoiding eye contact with what seemed like everyone in the dang place.

Pulling up a stool, Rebecca sat and waited for the bartender to assist her. After about 10 minutes it didn't seem like the bartender was even going to bother with her.

"Ahem, excuse me." Rebecca asked softly

"Whatdya want!" the old bartender grumbled.

"Well...uh...how about the hardest beer ya got." Rebecca asked in an almost friendly way, she honestly didn't know to much about alcohol, so she didn't exactly know what to ask for.

"Beer eh?" The bartender laughed and went to go get Rebecca's drink.

Rebecca sighed and put her head on her hand she wanted to get outta here as quickly as possible, and fall asleep in a nice comfy bed.

Suddenly a young woman sat in the vacant seat next to Rebecca, Rebecca looked over at her and her eyes widened a bit she's was pretty. Her hair was dark brown and in curls and fell to her shoulders, her eyes shined a dark sorrel color and her tawny skin glowed in the colored lights of the bar. Her clothes were nice, a dark indigo tube top, with tight-fitting denim jeans. Rebecca looked down at her own attire which consisted of a plain green tank-top and not overly tight, but not overly baggy jeans.

"Here's yer drink." The bartender grumbled sliding a tall mug her way. Rebecca almost dropped it, but she caught it before all the contents could spill and she would look even more like a dope in this place. But the thought struck, while she was in here she might as well ask some of these people had they seen Billy around.

"Uh excuse me? Sir?" Rebecca asked for the bartender's attention again.

"What do you want now girl?" He asked in a irritated fashion.

"Uh, yeah have you see Bill- er this man?" Rebecca corrected herself before she said Billy's name.

The bartender examined the picture, then looked at Rebecca skeptically.

"Nah, I ain't see anyone in this bar that looks like that." The bartender started menacingly at Rebecca the went back to what he was doing.

"Well, I tried." Rebecca sighed and began to take sips from her mug.

¿Por qué está usted aquí? The woman to Rebecca's right asked.

"Huh? You talkin to me?" Rebecca pointed to herself in confusion.

"Si, chica why are you looking for Rodriguez?" She asked in a warning tone.

"Rodriguez?" Rebecca asked scratching her head.

"The man in that picture, aren't you a little young to be with him?" The young woman lit a cigarette puff it and blew the smoke into Rebecca's face.

"Well..*cough* I think you misunderstand." Rebecca held her nose and waved the smoke away from her face.

"There is no misunderstanding here, it looks like your going to have to be dealt with." She stood to her feet.

"Hey hold on a sec-"

The woman whipped out a pocket knife, not being hesitant she quickly slashed at Rebecca. Rebecca backed away out of the knife's reach and knocked over a stool behind her.

"Why are you doing this!?" Rebecca yelled at her, and stood ready to move again.

"Nobody comes in here asking questions about Rodriguez! Especially some little bitch such as yourself." The woman seethed ready for a slash at Rebecca again.

"Seriously lady you need to chill, I just need to know where Bill- er Rodriguez is!" Rebecca put her hands up in surrender.

"Liar!" She took a stab at Rebecca and slashed her arm from the tip of her shoulder to almost the crook of her arm. Rebecca yelled in agony as she stumbled back almost falling to the ground, she clutched her arm and stared back at the woman.

"You ask for Senor Rodriguez? And you are not even prepared to fight? Su Estúpido.." She sneered at Rebecca and grabbed the scruff of her tank-top.

Rebecca looked at her, too busy trying to keep the pressure on her arm.

*Why isn't anyone helping! There just standing there like this happens every day! *

"Please..." Rebecca pleaded, she was too scared to form anymore words.

"Your ignorance, will get you killed..." The woman held the knife to Rebecca's throat, ready to end her life.

"¡Parada de Michelle! ¿Qué usted está haciendo?" Someone yelled as they entered the bar.

The woman looked over to him, and let Rebecca go. Rebecca fell to the ground and winced at the pain in her arm.

"S-Señor Rodriguez." She straightened, and dropped her knife.

He rushed over to Rebecca's side, and helped her up.

"You okay?" He asked.

"Yeah...I'll be fine I-" Rebecca squinted her eyes, it couldn't be...

"You know this girl?" The woman sneered

"Yeah...I know her..." He smiled.

A-NOTE: *Phew* And that's Chapter One, Rebecca didn't have it so easy back there huh? Is it Billy!? Do we have a real bad version of the Godfather going on here? Nah but in the next chap you'll learn aboutthe whole Señor Rodriguez thing. Well, people let me know how this is going and yeah there's a little Spanish in here and if you care here are the translations.

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¿Por qué está usted aquí? :Why are you here?

"Su Estúpido": Your stupid

"¡Parada de Michelle! ¿Qué usted está haciendo?" : Stop Michelle! What are you doing?

Señor: Sir or Mr.

Chica: Girl

Please R&R and I'll love you forever, until next time...

Peace and Love Ya'll

~Angel